BBC Radio 4 Extra, 7 January 2014
As part of the week-long celebration of the work of the celebrated writer/ director,
who died in January 2013 at the age of 95, Radio 4 Extra broadcast a 1974 documentary looking at the origins and growth of
the Cockney dialect.
Stylistically speaking the format was similar to many of Chilton's radio documentaries, combining music, dance
and narration. Performed by Chilton himself, with Harry Landis, John Hollis as co-narrators, and musical interludes
by Pat Whitmore, Charles Young and the Kerbside Serenaders, the documentary proved that the elements of the dialect date
back centuries - to the Elizabethan era and beyond. The dialect might have become something of a novelty act -
in the 1980s series Minder, for instance, George Cole used elements of rhyming slang when he wanted to express
a particular point of view. Likewise David Jason was wont to use versions of the dialect in Only Fools and Horses.
Chilton's documentary showed that much of the rhyming slang had its origins in social and political crises: many cockneys
used song lyrics to voice specific discontents. Community singing not only brought people together, but helped them
solve particular difficulties collectively.
If nothing else, The Cockney helped us understand how language is a constantly evolving
form, and cannot be evaluated independently of the societies that produce it. The programme offered a fascinating insight
into the lives of people in the past, and how song expressed their specific struggles.
